Garbanzo — Restaurant in Glendale

Here's another Denver fast-casual FIRST. The chain was founded in Greenwood Village, although the location I've frequented is in Glendale on South Colorado Boulevard. I love Mediterranean food, and Garbanzo is quite clever in the way it adapts gyros and kabobs into Denver’s fast-casual milieu. Like our other quick-serve, high-concept, chef-inspired restaurants, they prepare their dishes daily and from scratch, with one eye on tradition and the other on new-wave healthiness. They also offer sponsorships and fundraising opportunities to support a sense of community.

The food? There are vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free options. You can have steak, chicken, or gyros, or you can have falafel or Portobello mushrooms. The hummus, tabbouleh, and baba ganoush look good and taste that way. Some ingredients are sourced locally and others are imported directly from the Mediterranean region. They make their pita, falafels, potato chips, and baklava in-house (cookies, too). Their salads and sauces are produced in-house, too. I love the sauces, and there are many to consider: tzatziki, cilantro sauce, red chili sauce, Mediterranean white garlic sauce, tahini sauce, Greek vinaigrette. I never leave the counter with less than three of them!

Westword published “Garbanzo Wants Diners to Feel Good About Mediterranean Food” by Jenn Wohletz (May 1, 2012). It’s a good look at the history of the company, from founder Alon Mor's Israeli grandmother to the franchising plan that has since exploded, bringing Garbanzo to Boston, and to Texas, and many points in between.

There is a problem, though. Lately, the Garbanzo I patronize has seemed a bit listless. The offerings are less delightful. The bloom is off the rose, as they say. Has something happened to the food, or to the restaurant? Or have I just become too used to what they offer? Too jaded?

I worry that in the fast-casual world, the “fast” sooner or later overwhelms the other elements of this genre – and the made-from-scratch, locally-sourced, chef-inspired elements suffer...

I am a vegetarian. So I am only reviewing the vegetarian choices. For me, I found enough vegetarian choices. I really liked their food. I had the falafel plate. But they also give you a choice of many sides. I had the hummus, the taboule salad, the cucumber salad, the red cabbage salad, black olives and pickles. They also give you some of their fresh baked in front of you, round breads. They give you many choices for sauces. I had the tahini sauce to dip my falafelss. And the vinaigrette sauce to put on top of my cucumber salad. They have fresh lemon slices by the drinks. I used the lemon slices on my taboule salad. Everything was liberally mouth watering good. I had been there before. And I don't remember how much I love their good until I am eating it. I should read this again more often, so that I don't take too long before returning. The staff was very friendly and attentive. They are running a promotion right now (2018 Christmas season). If you buy a $30 gift card, you get a free entre. I asked the male cashier if I bought the card today if I could get the free meal today and also use the same card today. He said yes. However, once we were ready to pay, he said, no, we have to use the card next time. I said, but that is why I came in ahead of my group to ask and you said yes. And he said, I thought you meant the free entre today. I said I was extremely clear and specific. He said sorry. As you can read from my review, I am very clear as to how to explain myself. One could blame a rush for not listening. But there was no one in line when I came in to ask. And when we were ordering, we were the only ones there. So he just wasn't listening. But he was nice. And the rest of the staff was nice. And the food was great. I definitely recommend this place. If you come in, try more than one of their sauces. They are...

This used to be one of my favorite places to eat. I stopped going last summer because the food was awful and the staff even worse a couple times in a row. I decided to give it a try again a couple weeks ago. The first time they were out of several essentials, like rice and vegetables. The staff were courteous, but it was a little before 7 pm and they said they would not be making any more due to closing time approaching. I thought that was strange. The second time was this week. I arrived around 6:45 and it was pretty busy. There were 3 delivery drivers waiting for food, another customer ahead of me, and the online orders were printing like crazy. I heard them say they were out of seasonal hummus, rice, chicken, pickles, falafels, and pitas, but it was clear they were out of more than that from looking at the food line, which was nearly empty. The customer ahead of me said he was willing to wait for them to refill a couple things and they said that it was too late in the evening for them to refill any food items they were out of. He finally left. I almost left as well, but decided to try to figure out a way to make my plate work. As I was waiting for them to give me my food, they called two of the delivery drivers up to tell them what they were out of so they could contact their customers. I understand trying to avoid waste in the evenings, but 6:45 is prime dinner time and they should have a full stock of everything at that time. I don't want to give up on this restaurant, because the food is good, but if they can't improve on these issues, I will have a hard...